View full sizeStephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-StandardFired Auburn police officer Brian Hutchings arrives at the Cayuga County Courthouse in Auburn on Tuesday for opening arguments and first day of testimony in his bribery trial. Hutchings, who served as an Auburn police officer for 19 years, faces 14 charges, including five felonies.

Auburn, NY -- Was fired Auburn police officer Brian K. Hutchings a rogue cop who tried to shake down a local contractor over an unpaid personal bill or was he a good cop who is falsely accused of abusing his position and taking bribes?

That is the ultimate decision a Cayuga County jury will have to decide when testimony, which started today, ends in Hutchings’ trial. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.

“Shaking down contractors in Auburn, that’s exactly what this case is about,’’ District Attorney Jon Budelmann said in court before giving his opening argument Tuesday morning.

During opening arguments, Budelmann and defense lawyer Emil Rossi painted different pictures of Hutchings, who is standing trial on 29 charges that accuse him of using his position to receive free or discounted services at his home from two Auburn businesses.

Hutchings, 49, of 72 Metcalf Drive, faces up to seven years in prison on the most serious of the felony charges, receiving a bribe in the third degree. Hutchings, who had been a cop for 19 years, was fired last April after he was initially charged in the case.

Budelmann said he would present evidence that shows Hutchings alerted Vitale and Upstate Paving construction companies many times in 2007 and 2008 as to when and where the state Department of Transportation was conducting commercial vehicle safety inspections in Auburn.

Hutchings was a commercial vehicle traffic officer and owed both companies several thousand dollars for work they had done at his home, according to Budelmann.

When Upstate Paving attempted to collect an $1,800 bill from Hutchings, he used abusive police tactics to avoid repaying the bill, Budelmann said. Hutchings wrote false traffic tickets against the business, and whacked and pepper-sprayed a driver in May 2008, added Budelmann.

Hutchings did not harass the Vitale company because the business never tried to collect some $4,000 that it was owed by Hutchings, Budelmann said.

Rossi told the jury of seven women and five men that Hutchings gained no personal benefits from his former position.

“Nothing corrupt happened. He didn’t get a benefit. He got nothing,’’ Rossi said.

The defense lawyer said Hutchings and Tim Locastro, an Upstate Paving representative, were childhood friends and had worked out a discounted price for the company to do work at Hutchings’ residence. Although Hutchings got behind on the $1,800 bill he eventually paid it off and never harassed the company or its drivers, Rossi said.

Regarding the Upstate Paving driver who was allegedly roughed up, Rossi said Hutchings made a lawful traffic stop and only used force after the driver resisted arrest.

Budelmann disagreed and said Hutchings was trying to send a message to Upstate Paving. He said it cost the driver $4,000 to defend himself in court for having a torn mud flap on his truck.

“This driver was doing nothing more than an honest day’s work,’’ Budelmann said.

Rossi also said Hutchings thought he had indirectly paid Vitale when he paid a bill to a general contractor who had hired Vitale for some of the work.

“There is evidence here of no crime,’’ Rossi said.

Regardless of the outcome of this trial, Hutchings faces more legal problems. He was indicted separately in May on 10 more charges that accused him of stealing more than $3,000 from the Auburn Police Benevolent Association while he was treasurer from 2001 to 2008. The PBA said some $75,000 was missing.

Hutchings is to be tried separately in the PBA case, and he faces up seven years in prison if convicted of the most serious grand larceny charge.